Web-based conference centers allow users to conduct distributed conferences that may include text, audio, and video content. A conference center is a server computer system that hosts conferences. To create a conference, the organizer of the conference uses the conference center to schedule the conference, send out invitations to conference participants, and provide the content of the conference. At the scheduled time, the participants of the conference can use their computer systems to join the conference being conducted via the conference center. A conference presenter can control the flow of the presentation of the content of the conference. The conference center sends to each participant the content that the presenter wants the participants to view or hear. Thus, participants at different locations can participate in a web-based conference hosted by a conference center.
Conference centers generally provide administrative, technical support, organization, presentation, and participation services. The administrative service allows a conference center administrator to create accounts for users who can organize and present conferences. A participant of a conference, in general, does not need an account on the conference center. The technical support service allows a conference organizer, presenter, or participant to elicit help from an administrator when they encounter problems using the conference center. The organization service allows an organizer of a conference to schedule a conference, send out invitations to participants, and specify the content of a conference. The presentation service allows a presenter to initiate a conference and to control the flow of the conference. The participation service allows the participants to join conferences to which they have been invited. The invitation that the participant receives may include a URL that identifies the conference. When a participant browses to that URL, the conference center provides a join conference web page through which the participant can identify themselves and enter a conference password, and join the conference.
Current conference center server computer systems can only support a limited number of user accounts. For example, some server computer systems can only support around 50,000 accounts. Some enterprises and businesses, however, may want accounts created for more than this limited number. Currently, to support more accounts, an enterprise would need to use multiple conference center server computer systems that each provide a different conference center. For example, an enterprise that needs 200,000 user accounts would need at least four different conference centers. There are, however, various disadvantages when an enterprise uses multiple conference centers. For example, the administrators of the conference centers would need to decide to which conference center each user should be assigned, that is, have their account created. As another example, each user would need to be aware of or have configured on their computer the identification of their assigned conference center. The maintaining of accounts across multiple conference centers can be time-consuming. It would be desirable to have a conference center that would support more than a limited number of user accounts and simplify the maintaining of accounts and the user experience.